HSDPA and Beyond

HSDPA and Beyond

> HSDPA and Beyond

White Paper

Document Date: February 2005

Document Version: 1.02

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HSDPA and Beyond

CONTENTS
1. INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................... 3
1.1. OBJECT ................................................................................................................................... 3
1.2. SCOPE OF THIS DOCUMENT ...................................................................................................... 3
1.3. AUDIENCE FOR THIS DOCUMENT ............................................................................................... 4

2. RELATED DOCUMENTS ............................................................................................................. 4

2.1. APPLICABLE DOCUMENTS ......................................................................................................... 4
2.2. REFERENCE DOCUMENTS ......................................................................................................... 4

3. WHAT ALL THE FUSS WITH HSDPA?...................................................................................... 4

3.1. EMPOWERING UMTS NETWORKS WITH HSDPA .......................................................................... 4
3.2. TRIGGERING THE DATA USAGE WITH HSDPA............................................................................. 5
3.3. GOING FURTHER THAN 1XEV/DO CAPABILITY ............................................................................ 7

4. WHAT IS HSDPA? ....................................................................................................................... 9

4.1. A NEW RADIO INTERFACE ......................................................................................................... 9
4.2. NO CORE NETWORK IMPACTS .................................................................................................. 9
4.3. HSDPA OVERVIEW ................................................................................................................. 9
4.4. HSDPA TERMINALS............................................................................................................... 15
4.5. TRANSPORT EVOLUTION WITH HSDPA ................................................................................... 17

5. PERFORMANCES WITH HSDPA .............................................................................................. 18

5.1. INDOOR VS OUTDOOR HSDPA SOLUTIONS ............................................................................. 18
5.2. THROUGHPUT PER CELL AND THROUGHPUT PER USER ............................................................ 19
5.3. COVERAGE ............................................................................................................................ 21

6. BEYOND HSDPA ....................................................................................................................... 22

6.1. HSUPA ................................................................................................................................ 22
6.2. MIMO ................................................................................................................................... 23
6.3. OFDM .................................................................................................................................. 24

7. CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................................ 25

8. ABBREVIATIONS AND DEFINITIONS...................................................................................... 26

8.1. ABBREVIATIONS ..................................................................................................................... 26

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HSDPA and Beyond

1. INTRODUCTION
1.1. OBJECTIVE
According to Pyramid Research, as of January 2005, more than 16 million subscribers
around the world use UMTS commercial services like video telephony, video and music
on demand at speeds up to 384 kbps. The fact is that the radio access layer as specified
in 3GPP Rel99 enables high Quality of Service (QoS) with video telephony, for instance,
but it does not manage the radio spectrum efficiently when dealing with bursty traffic.
The continuous need for even better spectral efficiencies, improved user experiences
and new services drove the standardization of new features defined in 3GPP Release 5
(Rel5).

One of the key features defined in UMTS Rel5 is High Speed Downlink Packet Access
(HSDPA), which offers significantly higher data capacity and data-user speeds on the
downlink compared to R99 UMTS. This is possible through the use of a new downlink
shared transport channel and a set of smart mechanisms such as a very dynamic
Adaptive Modulation and Coding, a fast scheduler, and fast Retransmissions
implemented in the UMTS BTS. This new feature is fully Rel99 backward compatible
and can co-exist on the same RF carrier with R99 UMTS traffic.

Broadband and Convergence will radically change the way of communicating by

providing seamless access to any kind of bandwidth demanding services and will blend
the boundaries between Wireline Operators, Internet Service Providers and Wireless
Operators. Without waiting for the future, where high speed wireless data uses new
physical interfaces like MIMO/OFDM, Wireless Operators can accelerate their Return of
Investment due to the high spectrum efficiency of HSDPA, which means higher capacity
and coverage, and enables new services that would have not been economically viable
otherwise.

1.2. SCOPE OF THIS DOCUMENT

This paper will provide an overview of HSDPA and will focus on the business values that
such a highly efficient access technology will bring to wireless operators including higher
capacity and newer services. The key mechanisms of HSDPA and the performances will
be explained. The other future evolutions like HSUPA, or MIMO and OFDM will also be
presented.

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HSDPA and Beyond

1.3. AUDIENCE FOR THIS DOCUMENT

Network Technology Evolution, Strategy Planning.

2. RELATED DOCUMENTS
2.1. APPLICABLE DOCUMENTS
None
2.2. REFERENCE DOCUMENTS
None

3. WHAT ALL THE FUSS WITH HSDPA?

3.1. EMPOWERING UMTS NETWORKS WITH HSDPA
HSDPA (High Speed Downlink Packet Access) will empower UMTS networks by
providing higher data rates and lower latency to end users. The three essential pillars of
UMTS are 2G/3G continuity of service, Multimedia support by enabling the support of
Voice and Data applications at the same time, and higher data rates like 384 kbps.

HSDPA will go beyond with an average throughput of 800 kbps and even 1.5 Mbps in
the field thanks to high peak data rates with 3.6 Mbps for a Category 6 Mobile and up to
14.4 Mbps for a Category 10 Mobile. In addition, HSDPA provides lower latency with
Round Trip Delays of 70 ms enabling great interactive applications like multi-user
gaming.

In addition, HSDPA will empower UMTS networks by providing much more capacity than
planned with the same network design as explained in the next sections. The use of
HSDPA optimizes the investment in the network as some traffic normally transported on
a dedicated channel can be supported by HSDPA more efficiently, saving capacity that
can be allocated to new users. At least, twice as many subscribers per cell should be
supported with HSDPA!

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HSDPA and Beyond

Wireless Operators have to squeeze the absolute most value from their investment, and
as data traffic is expected to take off very quickly, there is a further need for higher
spectrum efficiency compared to UMTS Rel99. According to Forrester, revenues from
Wireless Emerging Services are forecasted to grow from $4 Billion in 2004 to $61 Billion
in 2008 (CAGR 98%). The last business case created by Nortel shows an OPEX
reduction of 37% due to the lower cost per megabyte (half the cost of UMTS Rel99) with
HSDPA.

HSDPA is the right answer to the 1xEV-DO offensive already launched in March 2004 -
and also the way to clearly position UMTS in the broadband area.

3.2. TRIGGERING THE DATA USAGE WITH HSDPA

HSDPA innovations compared to todays UMTS include the increase in the range of
applications available to the end user, enabling access to broader content due to the
high speed downlink transmission (because it is ~5x faster), and the increase of the data
users per cell due to the better spectral efficiency (~10x more spectrally efficient). This
will boost the use of applications by the end users, which will generate more revenues
for wireless operators.

The usage increase of the Internet today is mainly due to the huge deployment of
broadband solutions making bandwidth a commodity and enabling richer content based
on a friendly format using video, pictures, music and interactive gaming.

Looking back in history at what happened with the adoption of mobile services for voice
provides a good example of what will happen with data. At the beginning of the 90s, it
was believed that voice service would be dedicated for specific professional users like
medicine, or a sales force on the road. Finally, instead of a niche application, wireless
voice services are now widely spread of all over the globe with more than 3 billion users.
GSM and CDMA 1xRTT brought a first step towards freedom with the ability to provide a
basic service speech everywhere with good quality and without any specific
constraints for the user. Even at home, people are now using their mobile phone
because the quality is equivalent to their fixed phone.

HSDPA will change wireless communications by delivering broadband in wireless

access. This is the next big technological advancement needed to increase usage. It will

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HSDPA and Beyond

boost usage in business sectors by providing a virtual office environment anywhere and
it will also trigger usage by the consumer market by leveraging the end-user experience
of fixed broadband.

Business Market Consumer Market

HSDPA

Music, Gaming,
Web Browsing,
Infotainment On
Corporate VPN, Higher Demand,
Data Rates
Sales Force Video Streaming
Automation Lower
Latency
More ARPU More ARPU
Higher
+ 50% of Usage ! Capacity
+ 25% of Usage !
Much More
New Subscribers New Subscribers

Figure 1: Triggering the data usage with HSDPA

Thanks to HSDPA, UMTS market growth will replicate what happened with fixed
broadband access. The implications, both for businesses and for the consumer marker,
will be enormous.

The first trend will be for the business market by extending Wireless LAN applications to
everywhere providing a virtual office to sales force, and all nomadic jobs. Indeed,
HSDPA allows for broadband to be truly ubiquitous for the very first time without the
inconvenience of looking for hotspots or wireless access points.

One of the most dramatic changes the telecom sector has faced in recent years has
been the diminishing time lag between the corporate sector and the consumer market in
their uptake for new technology. As far as the consumer market is concerned, HSDPA
will blend the boundary between their fixed broadband access and their mobile services:
HSDPA will provide the seamless access to all applications already used at home for
entertainment like music and video downloads, multiplayer gaming, and TV. HSDPA has
a great opportunity to enter the triple play market by addressing residential access with a
bundle offer for TV, Internet Access, and Voice and Mobile services.

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HSDPA and Beyond

Common billing
&
Great bundle offer

MBMS

+ T.V. Voice Internet

Mobile Requires 3 to 4 Mbps
PDAs => UE Category 6

Figure 2:
Entering the Triple Play Marketing with HSDPA

In the same way GSM can be used at home, UMTS users will also use UMTS services
at home due to the broadband capability of HSDPA. Thats why, 100% of the access will
be wireless in the very near future!

This is not a futuristic vision. This is what will be possible in 2005 with HSDPA as
HSDPA has already been demonstrated by Nortel in January 2005 using a commercial
infrastructure and a commercial chipset. HSDPA will blend the boundaries enabling
consumers to access the same level services everywhere as it was the case with voice
in the 1990s!

3.3. GOING FURTHER THAN 1XEV/DO CAPABILITY

Both HSDPA and 1xEV/DO, the HSDPA solution for CDMA2000, enhance downlink
packet data performances. HSDPA and 1xEV-DO are based on the same set of
technologies to improve spectral efficiency for data services like shared downlink packet
data channel, high peak data rates, using high-order modulation and adaptive
modulation and coding, HARQ retransmission schemes, fast scheduling and shorter
frame sizes.

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HSDPA and Beyond

Technical Features HSDPA 1xEV-DO

1,25, 2,5, 5, 10 ms Variable
Downlink Frame Size 2 ms TTI
Frame Size
Channel Quality reported at C/I feedback at 800 Hz (every
Channel Feedback
2 ms rate or 500 Hz 1,25 ms)

Data user multiplexing TDM/CDM TDM/CDM

Adaptive Modulation and

QPSK & 16 QAM Mandatory PSK, 8 PSK and 16 QAM
Coding

Chase or Incremental Asynchroneous Incremental

Hybrid ARQ
Redundacy (IR) Redundancy

SF=16 using UTRA OVSF

Spreading Factor Wash Code Length 32
Channelization Codes

Control Channel Dedicated Channel pointing

Common Control Channel
Approach to Shared Channel

Figure 3: Comparison between 1xEV/DO and HSDPA

Both technologies have the same spectral efficiency as they are very similar but HSDPA
has higher peak data rates and can fully use the remaining voice bandwidth. In addition,
multi-session support is possible with HSDPA, which means the capability to support
Voice and Data at the same time.

time
1.25MHz 1.25MHz 1.25MHz

EV-DO Data
HSDPA Data
5 MHz

1xRTT Voice UMTS Voice

& Data & Data

EV-DO 3 x 1.25MHz
Carrier HSDPA 1 x 5 MHz
Carrier

Figure 4: Spectrum efficiency between HSDPA and 1xEV/DO

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HSDPA and Beyond

4. WHAT IS HSDPA?
4.1. A NEW RADIO INTERFACE
HSDPA is a UMTS packet air interface (add-on solution on top of 3GPP R99/R4
architecture) that allows up to 3.6 Mbps peak data rate for a category 6 mobile per user
with a classical Rake receiver and up to 14.4 Mbps peak data rate for a category 10
mobile per user with advanced receiver solutions.

HSDPA terminals will co-exist with R99 terminals, but new terminals will be required to
support HSDPA. As explained in the next session, there is no modification to the core
network and traffic classes.

4.2. NO CORE NETWORK IMPACTS

It is important to note that HSDPA is a pure 3GPP Rel5 access evolution without any
core network impacts except for minor changes due to the higher bandwidth access. For
instance, in the 3GPP Rel5 the maximum throughput set into the signalling protocol has
been increased from 2 Mbps to 16 Mbps in order to support the theoretical maximum
limit of HSDPA data rate, which is 14.4 Mbps. This is why the signaling between the
UTRAN, SGSN, and GGSN need to be changed in order to support newly expanded
QoS parameters (hence GTP protocol and Session Management layer changes).

4.3. HSDPA OVERVIEW

Basically, HSDPA introduces a new common High Speed Downlink Shared Channel
(HS-DSCH) shared by several users. In addition, it introduces enablers for the high
speed transmission at the physical layer like the use of a shorter TTI (2 ms), the use of
Adaptive Modulation and Coding, and the use of fast retransmission based on hybrid
ARQ (HARQ) techniques. These key mechanisms are located within the UMTS BTS.

The scheduler has not been standardized in 3GPP and Nortel proposes a two stage
scheduler integrating the subscribers differentiation. With this packetized air interface,
more users are on a cell and the scheduler is more efficient by having more opportunity
to deal with a constructive fading. This is the Multi-User Gain of the HSDPA scheduler.

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HSDPA and Beyond

- HS-DSCH is shared by all users of a sector,

New Downlink Shared - HS-SCCH enables the UE to identify which

Transport Channel codes of the HS-DSCH contains its data,

- HS-DPCCH is responsible of Uplink signalling.

It enables to change modulation & coding format in

Fast Link Adaptation accordance with variations in the channel conditions
Adaptative which leads to a higher data rate for users in
Modulation & Coding favorable positions and reduced interference

Fast Retransmsissions HARQ retransmission protocol is implemented in

MAC Layer instead of the RLC Layer decreasing
(HARQ) the delay associated with retransmissions.
HARQ is placed in the Node B.

The Scheduler is placed in the Node B in order to

Fast Scheduling quickly responds the changes in channel conditions.
A compromise between a Round Robin
and a Max C/I scheduler shall be used

The scheduled nature of HSDPA makes it mpossible

Fast Cell Selection to use a soft HO mechanism. A hard HO is used
for HS-DSCH: the UE indicates the best cell
which should be serve it through uplink signalling

The TTI of 2ms leads to a reduced round trip delay

and a higher validity of the channel estimation.

Figure 5: Key mechanisms of HSDPA

In many aspects the new transport channel type HS-DSCH is very similar to the DSCH
transport channel in R99. As in DSCH, the HS-DSCH transport channel is associated to
a dedicated DPCH channel (in the uplink for HS-DSCH, contrary to DSCH). The main
difference from DSCH is that the scheduling with HS-DSCH is done at the Node B rather
than the RNC.

The HSDPA functionality defines new channel types:

- HS-DSCH transport channel
- HSDPA Shared Control Channel (HS-SCCH)
- High Speed Dedicated Physical Control Channel (HS-DPCCH).

Basically, the downlink HS-DSCH channel is shared in a number of SF 16 codes and

time. Within each 2 ms TTI, a constant spreading factor of 16 is used with a maximum of

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HSDPA and Beyond

15 parallel channels for the HS-DSCH. These channels may all be assigned to one user
during the TTI, or may be split amongst several HSDPA users. There is no more Power
Control with HSDPA and the High Speed Downlink Shared Channel is transmitted at a
constant power while the modulation, the coding and the number of codes are changed
to adapt to the variations of radio conditions.

Dedicated DCH Un-efficient usage !

10ms

UMTS
R99

Wasted bandwidth !

Shared HS-DSCH
Code multiplexing
Big shared pipe

HSDPA

2ms Time
multiplexing

Fast user scheduling in Node-B based on reported RF conditions

Figure 6: Time multiplexing Downlink Channel with HSDPA

The HS-DPCCH, UL signaling channel is of paramount importance as it provides

Channel Quality Indicator (CQI), ACK and NACK. The CQI - based on the measurement
of the CPICH power - reflects the Signal to Interference Ratio (SIR). Based on this CQI,
the UMTS BTS may change every 2 ms the modulation, the coding and the number of
codes during all the communication. Thanks to the real time knowledge (every 2 ms) of
the radio conditions for each user, HSDPA matches the exact throughput to the radio
bandwidth available for every user during the communication, which means higher
average throughput and higher spectrum efficiency.

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HSDPA and Beyond

SIR_Avg CQI_Avg RLC PDU reception rate (kbps)

35 4000

3500
30

3000
25

RLC throughput (kbps)

2500
20
SIR, CQI

2000

15
1500

10
1000

5
500

0 0
Time

Figure 7: Dynamic behavior of HSDPA

By taking the best of the radio spectrum in a real-time process, the Adaptive Modulation
and Coding enables bursty traffic, hence higher average throughput. This end-user
experience will depend on the number of HSDPA users in the cell, but 3 to 5 times
higher throughput is expected on the field with HSDPA. It also reduces the interference
variation due to link adaptation based on variations in the modulation/coding scheme
instead of variations of the transmit power.

This is the use of the 16 QAM modulation and the use of five SF 16 codes that enable
the 3.6 Mbps of throughput, which is the capability of a Category 6 mobile. This
modulation enables higher data rates as 4 bits are transmitted per symbol.

Figure 8: 3,6Mpbs with 5 SF16 Codes and 16 QAM Modulation

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HSDPA and Beyond

The main architectural shift with respect to R99 is the introduction of an ARQ scheme for
error recovery at the physical layer (which exists independently of the ARQ scheme at
the RLC layer). This scheme can be defined as Multilink Stop-and-Wait, because it uses
several ARQ protocols (up to 8) with window size of 1 in parallel. In addition, the error
recovery scheme makes use of incremental redundancy by combining successive
retransmissions of the same data unit (with possibly different coding and modulation
scheme between the two).

This fast retransmission scheme is of paramount importance for the TCP performances
as generally, TCP has not performed well in a wireless environment due to a significant
level of non-congestion loss.

TCP was initially designed for wireline networks, and packet loss is dealt with as
congestion which leads to an unnecessary reduction of the sending rate and therefore
reduces throughput. Loss leads also to an initiation of the slow restart mechanism. This
is slowest to reach a steady state when the Round Trip Delay is large. Variable delay
leads to inaccurate Time Outs and so extra TCP retransmissions are generated
(Spurious TCP Retransmissions).

With UMTS Rel 99, in case of loss during transmission, the RLC located in the RNC
uses an ARQ error recovery mechanism to retrieve the lost RLC frame. The process for
recovery of erroneous frames is initiated by the receiver by requesting retransmission of
the missing or damaged frames. A larger delay at the RLC is due to the fact that the RLC
detects a bad RLC frame when it detects a hole" (i.e. a missing number or a sequence
of numbers). This could take several frames if, for instance, the mobile is in a deep fade
for a long time. Only after detecting a hole can an RLC NACK be sent by the receiver.
The RLC NACK is often routed to a centralized part of the network (accounting for the 80
- 100 ms round-trip time) where RNCs are located.

With HSDPA, thanks to HARQ in the UMTS BTS at the MAC-hs level, a NACK requires
less than 10 ms for retransmission, which enables the recovery of erroneous frames
before the TCP timer expires and leaves the TCP throughput unaffected. Basically, the
mobile stores the first erroneous packet and will combine it with the retransmitted one.

Two combining schemes are supported with HSDPA: Chase combining where the BTS
re-sends the same packet and Incremental Redundancy where the BTS provides
additional coding by sending the parity bits in the re-transmission. Chase combining and
Incremental Redundancy are both mandatory in the HSDPA Terminal but the
Incremental Redundancy requires more memory in the HSDPA Terminal and should be

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HSDPA and Beyond

used only when using high coding rate. The BTS decides which combining technique
should be used depending on the memory of the terminal and the data rate.

2 ms 4 ms 6 ms 8 ms 10 ms 12 ms 14 ms 16 ms
Duplicated
t
TCP ACK
Bandwidth

15 SF16
K
AC

K
K
AC
AC

t
TCP Flow Control Management UE 1 UE 2 UE 3 UE 4

Without
HSDPA
1- There is no more spurious TCP retransmission
thanks to quick HARQ retransmission

Transfer Duration for FTP Downloading (s)

100 2- Layer 2 is getting better thanks to Adaptative 80
Modulation & Coding and 2 ms of TTI
compared to a wired TCP session
Percentage of Throughput

80 60 HSDPA
UE Cat 12
T/3
60 40

HSDPA
40 Due to longer RLC RTX times, 20
TCP timer expires before recovering T / 10 HSDPA
erroneous frames. Hence it leads to a UE Cat 6
reduction of the sending Rate, ie:
20 - Reduction of the TX rate 10
- Wasted radio resources Without
due to spurious RTX. HSDPA
0 0
0 0
0.1 0.2 0.3 2 4 6 8 10

FER File Size MBytes

Throughput enhancement with HSDPA File Transfert Duration with HSDPA

in bad radio conditions Thanks to higher Spectral Efficiency

Figure 9: TCP enhancements with the fast retransmission HARQ

Hence, HSDPA enables not only a higher download speed, but also more robust
behavior of the TCP regarding bad radio conditions.

There is tremendous gain if the MAC has at least one re-transmission; however,
simulations show that the gain does not increase substantially if the number of
retransmissions is more than two. This is due to the fact that after two transmissions,
most of the packets are recovered and the third retransmission is hardly required.

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HSDPA and Beyond

TTI transmission - Pedestrian_a 1 RX HSDPA User BLER CDF - Pedestrian_a 1 RX

90 1

80 0.9

0.8
70
0.7 BLER centred on BLER target (10%)
60
0.6 Residual BLER 0%
50
%

0.5

%
40
0.4
30
0.3
20 0.2
10 0.1

0 0
1 2 3 4 0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1

#transmissions BLER

Figure 10: Maximum retransmission rates expected with HSDPA

If the fast ARQ fails to deliver a frame correctly even after retransmitting the maximum
allowed number of times, then the responsibility is passed on to the RLC to retrieve the
frame.

Regarding mobility, due to the time scheduling aspect of HSDPA, Fast Cell Selection is
used instead of Soft Handover. The terminal indicates the best cell which should serve it
on the downlink, through uplink signaling. Thus while multiple cells may be members of
the active set, only one of them transmits at any time, potentially decreasing interference
and increasing system capacity.

4.4. HSDPA TERMINALS

HSDPA will require new terminals. However, they will be built in with R99 terminals and
will be compatible with WCDMA R99 networks. A typical upgrade strategy for an
operator will be to convert only a few cells with HSDPA while the remaining cells remain
on R99. Therefore, all terminals must support R99 and HSDPA. The first terminal will be
a data-card enabling 1.8 Mbps of peak data rate (Category 12) and 3.6 Mbps of peak
data rate (Category 6).

The signaling downlink shared physical channel HS-SCCH carries the HSDPA related
controlling information to the HSDPA mobile which monitors one or more HS-SCCH
according to its class to know when it should receive data. An example of the way data is
transmitted to the different users on HS-PDSCH is described below.

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HSDPA and Beyond

2 ms

HS-SCCH#1

HS-SCCH#2

the UE recognises its ID and receives an HS-PDSCH allocation

HS-PDSCH

HS-PDSCH#2

HS-PDSCH#3

Nack_nack_transmit = 2

HS-DPCCH ACK ACK ACK

7,5 slots

Figure 11: Signaling Monitoring by the HSDPA Terminal

Up to 15 HS-PDSCH could be allocated to HSDPA in a given cell and the terminal
equipment can monitor up to 4 HS-SCCH, each HS-PDSCH requires a SF16 code, and
each HS-SCCH requires a SF128 code. The UE Capabilities are standardized in 3GPP
in terms of category, which depends on the number of Channelization codes, the
minimum inter TTI interval and the support of the 16 QAM Modulation is described in the
following table.

Max number of HS-

HS-DSCH Minimum inter
DSCH codes (SF16) Modulation Max peak rate
Category TTI interval
received
Category 1 5 3 QPSK & 16-QAM 1.2Mbps

Category 2 5 3 QPSK & 16-QAM 1.2Mbps

Category 3 5 2 QPSK & 16-QAM 1.8Mbps

Category 4 5 2 QPSK & 16-QAM 1.8Mbps

Category 5 5 1 QPSK & 16-QAM 3.6Mbps

Category 6 5 1 QPSK & 16-QAM 3.6Mbps

Category 7 10 1 QPSK & 16-QAM 7.3Mbps

Category 8 10 1 QPSK & 16-QAM 7.3Mbps

Category 9 15 1 QPSK & 16-QAM 10.2Mbps

Category 10 15 1 QPSK & 16-QAM 14.4Mbps

Category 11 5 2 QPSK only 900kbps

Category 12 5 1 QPSK only 1.8Mbps

Figure 12: HSDPA Capability per 3GPP Category

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HSDPA and Beyond

4.5. TRANSPORT EVOLUTION WITH HSDPA

As already explained in the previous section, HSDPA will provide higher spectrum
efficiency thanks to the new shared downlink channel and enhanced mechanisms like
adaptive modulation and coding, and the 16 QAM Modulation when good radio
conditions enable the use of the higher rate modulation. This leads to a more bandwidth
demanding access in terms of transmission between the UMTS BTS and the RNC. This
impact on the throughput per UMTS BTS will depend on the mobile performances for
HSDPA, which are characterized by the UE category.

Maximum expected Introduction of

Traffic / Node-B advanced UE receivers 30-60 Mbps
per Node-B
Introduction of
UE Category 6

< 16Mbps Air

per Node-B 14Mbps / Cell
HSDPA take-off with
UE Category 11-12 < 8Mbps
Air
Per Node-B
7,4Mbps / Cell
Air Iub
3,7 Mbps / Cell 9,1Mbps / Cell
Iub
Iub 4,8Mbps / Cell
1,6Mbps / Cell
Time
2005 2006 and 2007

Figure 13: Impact of HSDPA on throughput per Node B for Hot Spots

For instance, up to 4.8 Mbps per cell on the Iub, which is the interface between the
UMTS BTS and the RNC, is expected with HSDPA in the next couple of years, which
means that even with a statistical multiplexing gain of 50%, 8 Mbps will be required for
Hot Spots. Taking into account the remaining traffic for GSM and UMTS Release 99, 5
E1 may be used pet BTS for recollecting all the wireless Traffic towards the RNC. Thats
the reason why it is so important to work today on new alternative transmission solutions
like Clear STM1 for dark fiber or Ethernet with IP Transport in UTRAN.

Besides, the inversion of the nature of the traffic with more than 60% of data traffic will
require wireless operators to plan new transmission architectures by adding more Points
of Concentration in the Access Network in order to take the best of the statistical
multiplexing gain. It will also change the way of engineering the transmission network by
dedicating specific transport channels for recollecting the HSDPA Traffic.

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HSDPA and Beyond

5. PERFORMANCES WITH HSDPA

We presented all the innovations that make HSDPA so efficient and we aim to provide
the key performances with HSDPA thanks to Nortels experience and leadership in
1xEVDO, which is the HSDPA-like solution for CDMA2000.

5.1. INDOOR VS OUTDOOR HSDPA SOLUTIONS

In the indoor environment, the small cell size, the very good and controlled coverage,
and low mobility lead to a very high spectrum efficiency and very high data rate per user.
Even if the 16-QAM modulation is very sensitive to the radio conditions, this modulation
will be used most of the time in an Indoor environment. In addition, there is a very low
impact on PA power for HSDPA operation, which means the downlink throughput is not
significantly impacted by the minimum power required for the signaling HS-SCCH
Channel.

However, when dealing with Outdoor configurations, the broadband performances are
much more challenging due to higher interference at the cell edge, and larger cell size
compared to indoor coverage for WLAN type services.

Basically, there is a significant impact on PA power for HSDPA operation i.e. lower
downlink throughput due to required power for HS-SCCH. Therefore, HS-SCCH power
control is required to reduce impact on HSDPA throughput as described below.
Otherwise more than 10% of the PA should be reserved for the HS SCCH Signaling
channel.

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HSDPA and Beyond

Figure 14: HS-SCCH required power for Outdoor Configurations

Typically, as depicted on the above distribution, in an outdoor environment, the signal to

interference ratio is less than -2 dB for more than 90% of the Cell, which means a
minimum power of 9 dB on HS-SCCH to guarantee a probability of error on the
signaling downlink channel of 1%. This results in 12% of the PA.
As there is a linear relationship between the radio conditions of the terminal equipment
and the power needed on the HS-SCCH signaling channel, it is possible to build a smart
RF algorithm within the UMTS BTS. This is able to provide the right power for HS-SCCH
to every user of the cell due to the CQI information. For example, with a reasonable error
rate of 2% of HS-SCCH, a user reporting a CQI of 7 will require -12 dB of HS-SCCH
Power and another user reporting a CQI of 12 will require only -19 dB of HS-SCCH
Power.

5.2. THROUGHPUT PER CELL AND THROUGHPUT PER USER

The capability to change the modulation, the coding and the number of SF16 Codes
during the communication enables a higher average data rate and higher spectrum
efficiency. But the support of a high number of SF 16 Codes and the support of the 16-
QAM modulation require very good radio conditions i.e. high CQI. The following table
specifies in the 3GP 25.214 the different transport format depending on the CQI reported
by a Category 6 Mobile.

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HSDPA and Beyond

CQI 0 to 6 7 to 9 10 to 12 13 to 14 15 16 to 30

Number of
1 2 3 4 5 5
HS-SCCH

Modulation QPSK QPSK QPSK QPSK QPSK 16-QAM

Figure 15: Table of Transport characteristics for Category 6 Mobile

The following pictures show that mobile capabilities really differentiate in good radio
conditions and that without enhanced UE Receiver, the expected throughput per user is
between 500 kbps and 1 Mbps.

HSDPA Throughput in PedA3 with IR15

1

0.9 UE Cat 12 (QPSK 5 codes)

UE Cat 6 (16QAM 5 codes)
0.8
UE Cat 10 (16QAM 15 codes)
0.7 UE Cat 10 (16QAM 15 codes)
Enhanced receiver
0.6
CDF

0.5

0.4

0.3

0.2

0.1

0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
Throughput in Mbps

Figure 16: HSDPA Throughput for different type of Mobile

When dealing with more than 5 SF16 Codes, a classical Rake Receiver is not able to
counter the Multiple Access Interferences and even if fast retransmissions enable the
partial coping with Multiple Access interference, it leads to an asymptotic throughput of 2
Mbps.

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HSDPA and Beyond

5.3. COVERAGE
In most cases, wireless operators have already deployed a large number of UMTS BTSs
by using RF dimensioning for 64 kbps services. It is very important to understand the
impact of a migration towards HSDPA in terms of capacity and coverage.

Paradoxically, HSDPA enables a wider coverage than UMTS Rel99 due to the Adaptive
Modulation and Coding and the fast scheduler in the BTS, which provides more
granularity in term of radio and resource management.

HSDPA Throughput 1 Rx
4000 kbps
HSDPA Throughput MUG 1Rx 20 users
T h r o u g h p u t (k b p s )

3000 kbps HSDPA Throughput 2 Rx

HSDPA Throughput MUG 2Rx 20 users
2000 kbps Throughput PS384

1000 kbps

0 kbps
0,02 km 0,12 km 0,22 km 0,32 km 0,42 km 0,52 km

Cell size (km)

Figure 17: HSDPA throughput comparison at the cell edge
Dense Urban Environment Pedestrian A 3 km/h model

At the cell edge, HSDPA is still able to deliver data while preserving the capacity of the
neighbor cells. Even if with Soft Handover for UMTS Rel99, it is possible to provide a
384 kbps dedicated channel at the cell edge, that would strongly impacted all the
capacity of sites involved in the Soft Hand Over. Nortel computed a lot of simulations
based on strong engineering experience in 1xEV/DO, and it has been shown that the
migration towards HSDPA will not impact the current network design at 64 kbps.

Basically, this is the Dedicated Uplink Channel which will determine the HSDPA
coverage. For a typical cell design based on 64 kbps (PS or CS), the impact is very
limited and occurs only when the HS-DPCCH is effectively transmitted.

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HSDPA and Beyond

6. BEYOND HSDPA
With wireless mobile radio communication, there is an endless quest for increased
capacity and improved quality. As HSDPA is about to launch, new technologies are
promising even more bandwidth and new services like HSUPA (Enhanced DCH in 3GPP
Release 6), MIMO (Multiple-Input Multiple-Output) and OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency
Division Multiplexing) in 3GPP Release 7.

Going further to 3GPP Release 7 and to ensure competitiveness in an even longer time
frame, i.e. for the next 10 years and beyond, a long-term evolution of the 3GPP radio-
access technology is now under investigation in 3GPP RAN Working Group.
Nortel demonstrated its leadership in the studies which have led up to the December
2004 agreement of the 3GPP Study Item on Evolved UTRA and UTRAN.

6.1. HSUPA
The 3GPP objectives with HSUPA or Enhanced-DCHA are to improve the performance
of uplink dedicated transport channels by scheduling the Uplink UE data rates depending
on the interferences and on the Node B processing resources, while increasing the radio
interface robustness with the HARQ protocol. The 3GPP Study has concluded that the
use of these mechanisms associated with a shorter TTI of 2 ms can lead to the following
enhancements:
- 50-70% improvement in UL capacity
- 20-55% reduction in end user packet call delay
- Around 50% in user packet call throughput
HSUPA is a very important step that can be achieved in the next two years. By reaching
high spectrum efficiency and low latency for both the uplink and downlink with
HSDPA/HSUPA, wireless operators will be able to provide seamless access services like
VoIP, which can be challenging in UMTS Release 99 Network.

Without HSDPA/HSUPA, different options for VoIP like the use of a secondary
scrambling code have been studied in 3GPP to cope with the following issues:

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HSDPA and Beyond

- Robust Header Compression (ROHC) in the PDCP Layer of the RNC,

- Uncompressed ROHC packets as synchronization loss may occur
- RTP and RTCP associated flow which are very bandwidth demanding

6.2. MIMO
MIMO (Multiple-Input Multiple-Output) is also a very promising technology that will
empower UMTS HSDPA networks by providing three times more throughput than
HSDPA as illustrated below:
7 Mb/s

6 Mb/s

5 Mb/s

Ref (1x1)
4 Mb/s PARC (2x2)
RC-MPD (2x2)
3 Mb/s PARC (4x4)
RC-MPD (4x4)

2 Mb/s

1 Mb/s

Mb/s
Round Robin Max Rate

Figure 18: MIMO Performances with HSDPA

MIMO increases the capacity due to the multi-stream transmissions and code reuse with
multiple antennas on both the transmitter and receiver sides. MIMO has been studied for
a long time, but due to the very high processing power needed to recover the transmitted
signals, it was not possible to implement such a technology in former processors.

MIMO is now part of the 3GPP Release 7 for multi-stream transmission with code reuse
and Transmit Diversity with more than 2 antennas. It is not restrictive to HSDPA.

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HSDPA and Beyond

6.3. OFDM

Orthogonal Frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) is a spread spectrum technology

that distributes the data over a large number of carriers that are spaced apart at precise
frequencies. OFDM has already been used in the global ADSL (asymmetric digital
subscriber line) standard.
As described on the following picture, OFDM splits the available bandwidth into many
narrow band channels. The carriers for each channel are made orthogonal to one
another, allowing them to be spaced very close together.
Available bandwidth

Sub-carriers

Guard Intervals

OFDM
Symbols Frequency

Time

Figure 19: Principle of OFDM

The orthogonality of the carriers means that each carrier has an integer number of cycles
over a symbol period. Due to this, the spectrum of each carrier has a null at the center
frequency of each of the other carriers in the system. This results in no interference
between the carriers, allowing them to be spaced as close as theoretically possible.

Each carrier in an OFDM signal has a very narrow bandwidth (i.e. 1 kHz), thus the
resulting symbol rate is low. This results in the signal having a high tolerance to multi-
path delay spread, as the delay spread must be very long to cause significant inter-
symbol interference (e.g. > 100 micro sec). For example, without OFDM and for a data-
rate of 1 Mbps, any delay spread longer than one microsecond would cause delayed
reflections from multi-path to overlap the direct signal for the next bit, thus causing inter-

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HSDPA and Beyond

symbol interferences. If instead, we transmit 1000 bits in parallel at a time on 1000

separate OFDM sub-channels, we can transmit them 1000 times slower; that is, one
millisecond to send them. A multi-path delay spread of 1 microsecond would only overlap
1/1000th of the transmission interval for any given bit, thus causing hardly any
interference at all.

Nortel is leading the 3GPP study for a new physical interface combining both MIMO and
OFDM, and which promises a huge increase in HSDPA throughput with more than 40
Mbps within the 5 MHz of bandwidth in the next 5 years.

7. CONCLUSION
Thanks to Nortels leadership in 1xEVDO, the HSDPA like solution for CDMA 2000, and
more than 5 years of UMTS development with a stable solution in commercial networks
based on the 4th UMTS Release, Nortel will empower UMTS networks with a smooth
and software-only migration path towards HSDPA.

Firstto-market with HSDPA with end-to-end wireless HSDPA calls in November 2004
and trials starting in Q2 2005, Nortel enhances the end-user experience by delivering up
to 5 times the UMTS data rate and 2 times UMTS capacity. In addition, HSDPA provides
lower latency with a Round Trip Delay of 70 ms enabling great interactive applications
like multi-user gaming.

HSDPA is an important ingredient needed to ignite global commerce and to enhance

human experience as it will provide a ubiquitous access to Wi-Fi applications without any
constraint of hot spots and provide seamless access to every type of broadband service
that is already used with ADSL.

In addition, to meet the growing demand for data services, Nortels R&D team is working
to bring the future beyond HSDPA. Nortel innovations in MIMO and OFDM radio
technology will allow the ability to cost effectively add capacity to support the emerging
broadband wireless era. Nortel has had an advanced MIMO-OFDM program in place
since 2000 and achieved peak data rates of up to 300Mbit/s in a realistic allocation of
20MHz radio channel.

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HSDPA and Beyond

8. ABBREVIATIONS AND DEFINITIONS

8.1. ABBREVIATIONS
OPEX: Operational Expenditure
CAPEX: Capital Expenditure
UE: User Equipment
Iub: Interface between the RNC and the Node B
16QAM: 16 Quadrature Amplitude Modulation
CQI: Channel Quality Indicator
HARQ: Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request
HSDPA: High Speed Downlink Packet Access
HS-DSCH: High Speed Downlink Shared Channel
HS-PDSCH: High Speed Physical Downlink Shared Channel
HS-SCCH: Shared Control Channel for HS-DSCH

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Nortel Networks is an industry leader and innovator focused on transforming how the world communicates
and exchanges information. The company is supplying its service provider and enterprise customers with
communications technology and infrastructure to enable value-added IP data, voice and multimedia
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For more information, contact your Nortel Networks representative, or

Call 1-800-4 NORTEL or 1-800-466-7835 from anywhere in North America.

*Nortel Networks, the Nortel Networks logo, the globemark design, and Business without Boundaries are
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Copyright 2005 Nortel Networks. All rights reserved. Information in this document is subject
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NN110820-012805

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